Daily chart

A map of sloth

A NEW paper published in the Lancet on July 18th, timed to coincide with the Olympics, compares countries’ rates of physical activity. The study it describes, led by Pedro Hallal of the Federal University of Pelotas, is the most complete portrait yet of the world's busy bees and couch potatoes. Dr Hallal and his colleagues pooled data from health surveys for 122 countries, home to 89% of the world’s population. They found that 31% of adults do not get enough physical activity—defined as 30 minutes of moderate exercise five days a week, or 20 minutes of vigorous exercise three days a week, or some combination of the two. Women tend to get less exercise—34% are inactive, compared with 28% of men—but there are exceptions and regional variations, as the maps below show. Women in Russia, Croatia, Luxembourg, Greece and Iraq (to name a few) move more than their male counterparts. Malta wins the race for the most slothful nation, with 72% of adults getting too little exercise. Swaziland and Saudi Arabia slouch close behind, with 69%. In Bangladesh, by contrast, just 5% of adults fail to get enough exercise. Surprisingly, America does not live up to its sluggish reputation. Six in ten Americans are sufficiently active, compared with less than four in ten Britons. These figures are worrying. According to another paper in the Lancet, insufficient activity has about the same effect on life expectancy as smoking.

There are definitely problems with people in some countries, one thing should be noted:

Sloth is actually mankind's most underrated virtue. It is, after all, responsible for all human progress. Who invented the wheel? Some guy who was too lazy to carry (or drag) his catch home from the hunt. Who invented agriculture? Some woman who was too lazy to walk all over the countryside foraging. Who domesticated the horse? Somebody who was tired of hauling his own cart. And the list goes on.

If you do not have plumbing and running water, carrying water is a daily weight lifting program.

If you do not have automobiles and petrol, walking is a daily cardiovascular program.

If you grow your own vegetable garden, weeding is a daily yoga stretch program.

If you do not have reliable electricity, muscles provide all the housekeeping power.

If you do not have air conditioning, a wrist powered fan rather than a iPad keeps you busy.

______________________________________

Sophisticated urban dwellers drive 15 minutes to their gym, work out for 20 minutes, shower and drive 15 minutes home. They could have walked the dog for an hour around the neighborhood instead. Walk the distance to the gym instead of 'go to the gym'. And saved on gym membership, fuel and expensive work out outfits. You don't need a gym to exercise.

Exercise does not need to be scheduled. It does not need new fashion outfits. It does not need trainers, yoga gurus and aerobic instructors. Exercise should not be faddish, glomming on to the next hot exercise trend like aerobics, spinning or yoga.

Rather exercise should be integrated into every aspect of life like commuting.

What exercise will we be doing 100 years into the future? 1000 years? 10,000 years?
Humans have walked for millions of years, and they will WALK into any Brave New Future.

If you cannot walk (i.e. become bedbound) then annual mortality is up to 50%!
***See data on non-operative hip fracture patients.

Walking is about survival.

The solution to a complex problem like the epidemic obesity is simple:
Get out of the SUV bubble => and feel the ground, taste the air, and experience your neighborhood.
Walking is the simple solution to obesity, fitness and sanity.

Almost two third Pakistanis live in rural areas where life is harder than 30 minutes of moderate exercise. Farmers and landless labour do manual hard work almost everyday for hours, lot more than 30 minutes a day. According to Map, 50% to 60% Pakistanis are inactive which may not be correct. Comparatively India, Nepal, Bangladesh has almost 20% inactive rate which seems logical, Pakistan's number should be near to that.

I just wonder if numbers from health department of each country are equally reliable, and comparable.

I don't know what data the researchers analyzed, but it's obviously a very biased data.
Have you ever been to Sweden, or Denmark or... Netherlands? How can this countries have this levels of physical inactivity when people ride their bicycle everywhere?
Even in Portugal, Spain and Italy, just go out to the streets and see that people walk a lot everyday.

Exercise = Gym
Fitness = Pumping Iron
Health = Taking a Pill
Diet = Specially packaged foil-wrapped meals sold in the back of a car trunk by a thin attractive salesperson.--They all taste like high protein shake mixes or glue paste.

________________________________

Rather exercise is how you go about your day from waking up to sleeping. It is actively walking, climbing stairs, doing errands. walking the baby and dog and carrying packages.

Diet is eating everything but in moderation. And it is rich in fruits and vegetables with spare amount of meat and fat. And controlled small amounts of alcohol.

Health is integrated into your lifestyle. Avoiding smoking. Using seat belts. Using a life preserver. Using a statin drug to lower cholesterol. Taking a daily aspirin to cut down inflammation. Walking and biking for daily errands as much as possible. Using mass transit--you are walking for internodal transfers and are likely not stuffing your face.

The World is your Gym. Go local. Meet your neighbors. Make your dog happy and active. Get sunshine. Experience nature.

How to lead a healthy life: MAKE YOUR LIFE ACTIVE AND HEALTHY.

Health is integrated into lifestyle. It is not popping another pain pill or placebo.

I've found that in the United States, sport and exercise are quite accessible to the general population. This accessibility may come in the guise of free inter-varsity sports among public high schools (the study accounts for 15 years+), prevalent public recreation facilities, conducive weather, etc.

The obesity problem, however, probably has less to do with physical activity and more to do with nutritional ignorance and/or genetics.

I've never heard "slothfulness" as a stereotypical failing of the U.S. Obesity, yes. But that has much less to do with exercise than with diet. The U.S. is the one country in the world where the poorest people are the fattest people - despite being less likely to have sedentary jobs and vehicles. Why? McDonalds is cheap, open at all hours to accommodate all shifts, and on every corner. Farmers markets are not.

It should be noted that the United States has some of the best weather for outdoor exercise, not too hot, not too cold, for most of the year. The U.S. should be ranked at the top for exercise, not the middle, which is where you'll find its flab.

Different point of view will bring you quite a dissimilar conclusion when it comes to sports. Modern Olympic or sports didn’t come into existence in China until the late 19th century when there was the only athlete was sent to take part in the games. Traditionally, body building was ignored due to the fact that mental training was the ladder to upper society, which manifested in thousands of years cultural integration. Unlike Greece or other western countries in process of expansion during which being heavily built in body and dexterous in movement took advantage, China then, under the influence of its unique philosophy which was in favor of being harmony with nature rather than contention, had its focus on musical instruments, chess playing, calligraphy and paintings. And it seemed that there was obviously a distinction between mentally strong and physically powerful in terms of cultivation. National examinations or royal examinations standardized what the prestigious groups should follow. Politicians should be a man of letters rather than a man of swords.

As late as 1980s, China resumed its position in the Olympics and sent its athletes to compete. In 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China captured what was equivalent to its huge population in the Games. And still China remained lower when it comes to mass physical activities. What behind the number of gold medals obtained in the Olympics rests China’s strategy. Instead of motivating mass fitness, which is the key to spur Olympics, China invested too much in championships, which lends glory to the country, thus resulting in the increase in the number of couch potatoes at home. Most athletes or most items in sports are funded by public money in order to attain gains in medals, which goes contrary to the Olympics motto, Just Do It.

Being a developing country, China isn’t fully aware of what its people should be chasing as far as happiness is concerned. With cars to carry them fromplace to place, an elevator to uplift whichever floor they desire, Chinese people thought they had realized their dreams of happiness in their air0conditioned existing place. With government investment flowing into Golden Medal Strategy, China or Chinese people would stay where it is now in the map of sloth for at least 20 years to come.